


Still the Same

by secondalto



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Episode: s10e13 The Road Not Taken, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-31
Updated: 2012-08-31
Packaged: 2017-11-13 07:01:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/500766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secondalto/pseuds/secondalto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He didn't know he was looking for love until he found it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Still the Same

**Author's Note:**

> Written for mcshep_match 2012, Team Space (winners!). With many thanks to  aadarshinah for brainstorming help and that_which for brainstorming, cheerleading and being a great beta.

Rodney McKay was walking down the hall of his very large house, barking at his personal assistant when he found love again. Of course, he didn’t know that at the time.

“So I need you to send those changes to R and D and reschedule my appointment with the Senator for whenever I have free next week.”

“But sir, you’ve already rescheduled it three times.”

“And he’s canceled four. It’s a dance we do. Then I need. . . .” Rodney stopped when he saw the man standing in the foyer.

The stranger was dressed in Air Force blues, various medals and ribbons adorning his chest. The insignia on the shoulders told Rodney he was a major, if Rodney remembered his rankings correctly. The major was tall, a bit on the lean side and had hair that certainly defied any kind of dress code. He must have heard Rodney talking because he looked up and Rodney saw his eyes were hazel. They also held a touch of defiance and anger in them. Rodney stumbled then frowned at his PA when she collided with him.

“Was I expecting someone from the Air Force, Mandy?” Rodney asked.

She looked up, then back down at her PDA, pressing some buttons. “Yes, sir. Remember you asked General Hammond about filling the new position.” She checked her PDA. “This is Major John Sheppard, your five-thirty.”

“Oh, yes,” Rodney said. “You can be somewhere else now.”

She gave him a nod and scurried off. Rodney approached the major.

“So, I’m given to understand that you are a bit of a loose cannon,” he said without introduction.

Sheppard tilted his head slightly and smiled wryly. “I’m pretty sure it doesn’t actually say that in my files.”

“No, your files are bunch of bureaucratic bullshit that boils down to saying ‘loose cannon’.” Rodney admitted with a wave of his hand. “So what did you do to end up here?”

“You read the file.”

“I want to hear your side.”

“I saved a friend. I don’t like leaving my men behind, especially when I can help them.”

“I see. Do you know why you’re here?”

“No, sir. I was just told I had to come here if I didn’t want a dishonorable discharge.”

“”If you agree to work for me, we get the dis- removed from the honorable part. And it’s not sir. I’m informal. McKay works fine.”

“What exactly would I be doing?”

“I need a pilot. And a chauffeur, but mostly a pilot. I have a lot of business overseas and it’s ridiculous for me to have several private planes on hand and no one to fly them. I hate flying commercial.”

“And if I say no?”

Rodney snorted. “You haven’t seen my planes yet.”

The major didn’t say no.

                                                                *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Sheppard, are you doing anything right now?”

“I’ve been working for you for almost three years now, McKay, Isn’t it about time you started calling me John?”

“When you start calling me Rodney.”

Rodney really enjoyed the back and forth he’d developed with John. It was almost...flirtatious. But he wasn’t enirely sure John swung that way so he carfully skirted the professional line between them.

“Not going to happen. You need to go somewhere? I can have the limo ready in five, any of the planes in ten.”

“Not exactly. Remind me, did you sign all the NDAs Mandy gave you, especially the ones regarding the military contracts?’

“Yes, and I’m pretty sure you know what my clearance was when I left the force.”

“Not high enough. It got bumped up the minute you started working for me. Come on, there’s something I want to show you.”

Rodney took John to the R & D building. They had to pass through several heavily secured doors, requiring thumbprints, ID scans and one with a retina scan and blood sample.

“What are you hiding down here, the Ark of the Covenant?”

“Better,” Rodney grinned as the last door slid open. He touched a panel on the wall inside and the room lit up. Inside sat the newest acquisition from the military.

“What is it?” John asked as he started to walk around it.

“It came from the Stargate program,” Rodney said. The program had gone public last year after the near invasion of the Ori. “It’s a gateship.”

“Gateship?”

“It travels through the Stargate. It’s a gateship,” Rodney said, gesturing to the ship. It made sense to him.

“This little puddlejumper?” John asked. “How does it work?”

Rodney took the control out of his pocket and the back door glided open. “There are very few people that can fly this.”

“Really great pilots?” John asked, stepping onto the ramp. As soon as he got into the main part of the ship, it lit up. “What the fuck?”

“I knew it!” Rodney crowed, almost bouncing with delight.

“What the hell did you know, McKay and why is this thing going all batshit insane?”

“You have the gene.”

“Really now?” John was trying to play it cool, but Rodney knew him well enough to know he was curious and surprised.

“The people who designed this ship also designed the Stargate system. They were known as the Ancients. I believe that some of them came to Earth and stayed, leaving behind a legacy of sorts. Their descendants have a gene that can control their technology.”

“And I’m guessing the light show means I’m one of those descendants.”

“Exactly. I had my suspicions. You lit something up in my lab once. The only other person to get the ship to react this way was O’Neill.”

“As in General O’Neill, of Homeworld security?”

“Yes, yes. Now, why don’t you go sit in the pilot seat and we’ll see what you can make this thing do.”

If John just happened to find the cloaking mechanism and they went for a spin around Colorado Springs, there wasn’t anything in the official report.

                                                                *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rodney’s world turned upside down when Sam came back into it. Especially when he found out she wasn’t his Sam. He’d always subscribed to the multiverse theory, but to see the actuality of it was mind blowing. He wished he could spend more time with this Samantha Carter, ask her about her Rodney and if there was a John Sheppard in her universe. With the increased Ori prescence here, it was all Rodney could do to keep his John from being recalled into service. 

When the men in suits came to ‘persuade’ him to come and work for the president, Rodney assured John that he would be safe. He only hoped that he could keep that promise. So here he was with Sam, trying to reconstruct the inter-universal bridge to get her home.

“So...do you have anyone waiting over there?” he asked. 

“Hmmm....what?” she said, looking up from her calculations.

“Anyone special missing you?”

She shook her head. “No. There was someone but it ended a while ago. We were engaged for a while.”

“Sorry.”

“It was for the best, really. How about you? Other than your Sam. How is Landry going to handle that?”

“Oh, I’m sure after an appopriate amount of time, there will be some kind of ‘accident’,” Rodney used air quotes to emphasize the word, “And Colonel Samantha Carter will die heroically. I’ll arrange the funeral of course. Very tasteful. And, uh…I…I feel silly saying this, but there might be someone.”

“Might be?” Sam teased.

Rodney tried to look busy but she just kept staring. “I don’t know. We’ve been....circling each other for years now. But I don’t know if he’s interested.”

“He? I thought that....”

“Not completely straight. I had boyfriends in college. But it’s different with John.”

“Sheppard?”

“Yes, how did….? There’s a Sheppard in your universe?”

“He’s the military head of the Atlantis expidition, and my Rodney’s best friend.”

“Oh. Well...umm....”

“Rodney,” Sam chuckled. “Just tell him how you feel. If your John is anything like the John I know, then both of you are too stubborn to admit how they feel. Or that they have feelings. And I think John would be extremely reluctant to say anything because of Don’t Ask.”

“Landry did away with that when the program when public. The need for soldiers outweighed anything else.”

Sam nodded. “I also hope this entire experience shows you just how precious having someone special is.”

“It has,” Rodney admitted. “I will. Uh...thank you.”

She smiled. “Anytime.”

                                                *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After Sam was successfully sent home, it took another month or two before Landry allowed Rodney to go home. There was the threat of death if he didn’t return of course, but Rodney knew Landry was bluffing. Besides, he was interested in the work, so he would return. The goons in black suits didn’t take him home though, they drove him to a non-descript building a few miles from the mountain.

He tried to ask what was going on, but they ignored him, bustling him into the building. Once past the reception area, Rodney saw that this was a detention facility. There were a handful of people in cells that were spacious enough to be more hotel room than prison cell. The goons guiding him down the hall to the very last room on the left. Rodney glanced in and saw the occupant.

“John?!?”

John sat up on the bed, smirking. “So, being in prison finally gets you to call me by my first name.”

“What? How?” Rodney sputtered before turning to the goons. “Either let him out or let me in.”

The goon on the left muttered something into a comm and the door unlocked. They let Rodney in, but locked the door behind him.

“Why are you here?” Rodney asked, wanting to go to John and touch him.

“Got worried. I didn’t hear from you and I wanted to make sure they hadn’t done something to you.”

“Sheppard…John, I…I’m fine.”

“I can see that, McKay. But I didn’t then.”

“Why?”

“You like that question a lot.”

Rodney scowled. Then he began pacing and waving his arms. “I want to know why my employee felt it necessary to endanger his life for me.”

Instead of answering, John got off of the bed, grabbed Rodney by the arms and kissed him. Rodney flailed a bit at first and then began kissing back. They were interrupted by the discrete cough of goon number two.

“You are both free to go.”

Rodney nodded and looked at John. “I, uh… feel the same you know,” he said ducking his head.

“I got that when you kissed me back.”

“You’re still a….” Rodney started to say.

“I know,” John said. “I told you I don’t like leaving people behind.”

“Thanks. Let’s go home. I want to tell you about Atlantis.”

“The island that doesn’t exist?”

“Not exactly,” Rodney smiled.

John piloted the gateship through the Stargate a year later, on a mission to Atlantis. The team included his new husband, Rodney.


End file.
